The big one is that they claim it was an incredibly violent struggle and required extreme measures to subdue Curti. Another one is an officer claiming he sprayed capsicum 30cm (1 foot) from Curtis's face, only admitting it was 10cm after being confronted with fellow officer's statements. Another one was he was being tazered at point blank range by a number of officers.
The Sydney morning Herald has been following the story and these quotes are from 4 different articles in it. Firstly, through no fault of Curti being of his face on LSD, the police thought it was an armed robbery (it wasn't and it was only 2 packets of biscuits) from the convenience store and treated the situation accordingly. This misconception was only corrected for some of the officers:
Up to 11 officers, many acting on an incorrect report of an armed robbery, chased Mr Laudisio Curti down Pitt Street and restrained him using three cans of capsicum spray, two sets of handcuffs, multiple Taser shots and a police baton. The young student and football player died minutes later.
Inspector Cooper, who has 15 years' experience in the police force, said he had no objection to using the Tasers during the chase but they were unnecessary when Mr Laudisio Curti was on the ground and handcuffed.
''All we were trying to do now was control his behaviour,'' he said. ''There was enough police there to deal with that using a hands-on approach … not with [weapons].''
Inspector Cooper recalled yelling: ''Turn your Tasers off, get your cartridges out'', and ''No, no, he's in handcuffs, he's in handcuffs, don't Taser''.
But the barrister representing other officers involved challenged whether he gave the orders. Under questioning from Murugan Thangaraj, SC, Inspector Cooper said it was possible he had never given the orders.
He also agreed that other officers might not have heard them as the scene was loud and chaotic and he gave the orders as he was lying over Mr Curti with his face to the pavement.
Inspector Cooper said multiple and prolonged use of capsicum spray would have been inappropriate and he was not aware of this happening. Read more"Loud and chaotic" has apparently become one of the police's defences. In other words, they claim that with all those cops there nobody knew what each other was doing?
But then we have this one from the policewoman who a witness saw kick him when he was on the ground:
A police officer accused of kicking a Brazilian student as he was being Tasered multiple times on the ground said the violent confrontation was scary and chaotic.
.............................
This morning, she told the court it was a "violent, scary confrontation" and that she did not hear Mr Laudisio Curti's screams or calls for help because there were so many officers.
"At the time I didn't feel like I had control of the situation," she said. "It was chaotic and loud ... Everyone was just yelling out different commands."
She disputed an account from a witness that she kicked Mr Laudisio Curti, saying she held her foot on his back for 15 to 30 seconds to help restrain him.
She was unable to put anything more than a foot on Mr Laudisio Curti because there were so many other officers on him and surrounding him, she said.
At one point, Constable Ryan called for back-up because Mr Laudisio Curti was resisting so "violently".
However Peter Hamill, SC, representing Mr Laudisio Curti's family, suggested to her that the only violence in the confrontation was from the police officers involved.
"The violence was being applied by your colleagues. They were tackling him, they were zapping him ... That's all of the violence. Every bit of it was coming from the officers, not from Roberto," Mr Hamill said.
"No," Constable Ryan replied.
"All Roberto did was try to get away from these attacks," Mr Hamill said.
"Yes," Constable Ryan replied. Read more"Scary and chaotic"? Think I see a pattern developing..... "Scary?" She uses other emotive words too, like "violent, scary confrontation", "chaotic and loud", and Curti was resisting so "violently". Fuckin bullshit man. So many cops on him so she only had room to place her foot on him? That's "scary?". I believe the witness anyway, she was seen kicking him, that's what the witness saw and how it was described by the witness. But according to her it was just putting her foot there for 15-30 seconds. Oh please.... Another example of bending the truth to save their ass.
So, how much pressure was on top of Curti with all those cops on him, whereby the only free space left was only enough to place a policewoman's foot? About half a tonne, although the police clarified the next day that that was OK as not all the officers were putting all their force on him:
A senior constable involved in a violent struggle with a young Brazilian student did not put him in recovery position afterwards despite being aware of the risk of positional asphyxiation.
After a chase down Pitt Street, in Sydneys' CBD in the early hours of March 18 and a "prolonged" and "chaotic" struggle with officers, Roberto Laudisio Curti lay on his stomach with two sets of handcuffs on his hands, three partial cans of capsicum spray in his eyes and the weight of officers on his body.
Leading Senior Constable Scott Edmondson told an inquest into Mr Laudisio Curti's death today he was aware of the risk of positional asphyxiation following such a long struggle so he took the victim's pulse several times once the situation had calmed down.
But the officer did not put Mr Laudisio Curti in recovery position because he was more concerned that the young student would get away again.
"That had been the biggest struggle I'd been in," Constable Edmondson said in the Coroner's Court in Glebe this afternoon. Read moreOh, there's some more emotive language. We have "prolonged" and "chaotic" struggle with officers, and "That had been the biggest struggle I'd been in," My, sounds like these poor dear cops were in a state of terror of this half naked, out of it, Curti. Running around like a bunch of confused kids, tasering him without even knowing someone else was too.
But I reckon the worst thing about this is the attitude of the cops. Even after all of that, they still refuse to admit any responsibility for his death. They're claiming because it was such a "violent" struggle (one half naked man vs 11 cops) they had to use extreme measures. I don't believe that for a minute. This is what one of the officers has said about what happened:
In his statement to police after the event, he said there were in excess of half a tonne of police officers restraining Mr Curti at about the same time he had been Tasered by drive stun more than once.People have been saying there's something really wrong with police training here for years. The older cops are reasonable, but these younger ones are just a bunch of legal thugs. After years and years of both state gov's trying to toughen up with law and order issues this is what we've ended up with.
He clarified the comment to the court this morning and said that not all the officers were applying their whole weight.
"And [then] you sprayed as much as you could?" Mr Hamill asked.
"Not as much as I could, no," Senior Constable Ralph replied.
Minutes later, Mr Curti's face had turned blue and officers could no longer detect a pulse.
Asked if he would have done anything differently, Senior Constable Ralph said no.
"Was anything in the circumstances excessive?" Mr Hamill asked.
"No," he replied.
"Was anything OK to do to Roberto at the time to arrest him?" Mr Hamill asked.
"No," he replied. Read more
Where does it stop? If this happened 30 years ago it would have been a massive story much bigger than this. We've just become desensitised as the cops have slowly been given more and more power. It makes no sense to put a bloke only 20 or so years old out in the community armed to the hilt, and tell him to go for it. Now we have cops killing a guy with multiple weapons and actually asserting that it wasn't their fault.
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